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Name: Tho’am (Tho-omd)
Biology: The Tho’am are a large, bipedal humanoid species, with the majority of the species being over seven feet tall and approaching 350 pounds in weight. It is not completely unusual to find Tho’am that are eight feet tall or taller. The women are notably larger than the men, often stronger too. Their size gives them great strength, as even the leaner Tho’am;uum subspecies are comparable to Wookiees in strength. This strength is also imparted to their legs as they can leap up to three times their own heights. This is substantial as the average Tho'am easily physically outmatches even the most conditioned humans. In most comparisons, Tho'am and Wookiees are considered physical equals in terms of durability. Though Tho'am healing abilities are considered greater than Wookiees due to more advanced and tougher scar tissue from their lack of fur, and a higher level of bone mending due to density. They are a very healthy species when raised on their own diets or similar ones. The average Tho'am lives to 300 years old with the especially healthy ones living to 400. Typically, Tho'am are in their physical prime until 250 years old when their health begins to drop. Though a Tho'am above 250 is still not any physically weaker than their prime, their stamina starts to fall off as they approach the average life expectancy, typically leading to their death at the hands of the Faalak while hunting. Also, their ability to resist injury and heal quickly drops greatly at the age of 250. Those that live to 400 are to be feared until their death as they clearly show experience and health far beyond the typical Tho'am. Those that live past 400 have all been Force sensitives with Jedi training.
The species has smooth, clammy or dry skin. Their skin is often dull, multiple shades of dark blue or black in specific patterns. It is said that their ultraviolet sight gives them a more beautiful display through their own eyes and no Tho'am has the same pattern. They do not possess ears much like snakes and lizards. Their nose is also relatively on the same level as a human's. Their eyes, due to a different make up, are a light purple with no pupils whatsoever. Their hands are quite like humans except with longer, thicker fingers, and they possess pads on their finger tips meant for one of their tactile senses. Their feet are disproportionately larger and thicker with pads lining the bottom for another tactile sense. The Tho'am possess longer faces. The also have mouths with razor sharp teeth well. They have wing like expansions from the back of their head that wrap around their heads and open when they speak or roar. Their larynx is elongated similar to a lion's, giving them the ability to roar. While roaring, their head wings are always open allowing for full mouth extension. The roar is often physically felt in close proximity, just like when they speak as whispering is difficult to them.
The Tho’am possess interesting and very different senses. Due to their nocturnal habits, they see in the ultraviolet spectrum, and their sense of sight is less useful to them in the daytime. To compensate for this lack of usefulness, the Tho’am evolved vibration sensitive pads on the bottom of their thick stocky feet. The pads sense vibration in the ground and are so finely tuned that Tho’am can actually keep track of how many people are in the same room they are with their vibration sense alone. This sense also doubles to allow them to sense their natural competition’s distance relative to their location, as the Faalak are massive and create booming, ground shaking vibrations with each step that can be sensed from miles away. When focused, a Tho'am can get an impression of weight shifts in their target from a typically short range. Their ability to hear, which is not considered better or worse than humans, is actually also connected to the pads on the feet. While they cannot hear through their feet, it gives them the sensation of interpreting the vibrations. Their hands possess different pads all together which give them the ability to detect health and brainwaves which they can interpret. This has allowed them to speed up learning from a different species, and has increased their ability to communicate. However, this ability does not work on their own kind or those with scaly skin for an unknown reason.
Another supreme difference is the Tho'am lungs. The species's lungs consist of far more powerful oxygen receptors to take advantage of their planet's lower concentration of oxygen. On top of that, there is a gland that is secreted into their lungs that gives them the ability to survive in their planet's highly toxic atmosphere. Most extraterrestrial species have a problem breathing in their planet's atmosphere. There has been much research into the Tho'am's and other native species's respiration to create a safer way for offworlders to be on the native planet of the Tho'am besides utilizing suits and gas tanks. While there exists a drug that can be taken to suppress the effects, which can be obtained at the Republic space stations in the planet's orbit, the drug is not cheap. Rarely are extraterrestrials on the planet with Tho'am for very long. Jedi have proven specifically resilient with their abilities in the Force, but there is a limit to that as well. The toxic atmosphere was what led to the creation of the space stations in the orbit.
As an adaptation to their planet’s sporadic seasons, the Tho’am only breed in the summers in which their kind flourish. In the summers, the species undergoes a planet wide quickening that is relieved only after mating. This quickening affects only those that are sexually mature and only comes in the first five years of summer. As the feeling overcomes them, they feel a great sense of discomfort and arousal, sometimes even pain. Successive mating quells the quickening, with most Tho’am hardly noticing the quickening after five mating periods. Despite their need for mating, reproduction is only successful two out of five times up to a maximum of four out of five for the more fertile. Older, less fertile Tho'am can resist the quickening far better. The quickening has led to a difficulty adapting on other planets as going from winter temperatures, the more usual season of the planet, to hotter, summer-like temperatures such as the ones on Tatooine can lead to premature quickening, which is actually fatal without any mating whatsoever unless through use of drugs. It is easier for a Tho'am to go from summer temperatures after their quickening has ended to a hot or mild planet as without the immediate heat that comes after a cold phase from winter, Tho'am do not experience quickening. Planets that experience similar temperature change at short seasons have proven catastrophic. However, the Jedi trained Tho'am are much better suited as they are specifically trained in how to resist the quickening with the Force and without mating to varying levels of success.
Subspecies: There are several subspecies of the group: the Tho’am;mak, the Tho’am;uum, and the Tho’am;saa. They are each defined by their terrain of choice. The Tho’am;mak live in forested and jungle like areas, granting them generally more agility than the other subspecies. The Tho’am;uum live in the harsh deserts and can go very long periods of time without water, relying solely on their prey for moisture, and they are typically leaner with longer legs. The Tho’am;saa live in the arctic wastelands of the planet, making them more robust and huskier than their cousins, which allows for greater strength and durability. Though the species will sometimes travel across the planet in groups to communicate with their cousins, it is rare for the subspecies to naturally meet as their specific biomes do not normally intersect.
Sentience: Yes
Breeding: Tho’am reproduce sexually, in a semi-mammalian way. Despite being classified as mammals, they do not produce milk, with children being born with sharp baby teeth and fully developed stomachs ready to eat their typical prey. Due to their inability to produce milk and rare biology, they are not known to be able to interbreed with any outside species. Gestation takes place over a period of one and a half standard years. The average Tho’am is sexually mature after 10 to 15 years, too far into the summer they were born into to experience the quickening that resulted in their conception. At sexual maturity they are the size of an average adult human, and do not complete their growth into the typical size of the breed until the final five years of their adolescence. The final five years of adolescence sees the most extreme growth spurts, often growing two feet in the course of three years. A Tho’am is fully finished growing at twenty five years old, though they do not typically reproduce until they see their second summer at a maximum of 155 years old if a Tho’am is born especially unlucky. Sometimes, it is acceptable for a Tho’am to produce an offspring before their second summer if the winter looks to be pushing past one hundred years. Mating in winter however is less successful as Tho’am are periodically more fertile in the early years of summer. This has led to the Tho’am’s long lifespans and appropriate low population of their planet.
Strengths: Tho’am are very strong creatures. The average Tho’am surpasses even well-conditioned humans in strength, with their sheer power rivaling the galaxy’s larger species such as the Wookiee. They also have a great deal of utility, intelligence, and longevity.
Weaknesses: Due to seasonal quickening, the Tho'am generally have a difficult time adapting to certain planets with varying temperatures. Some planets have proven to be fatal atmospheres for all but the Jedi trained Tho'am.
Diet: The Tho’am are carnivorous, feeding on animals both larger and smaller than they are.
Behavior/Temperament: Despite the Tho’am’s massive size and strength, they are a very passive species. As their mating habits have not overpopulated their planet, and their food sources being relatively easy to come by depending on their subspecies, the Tho’am have never needed to wage war upon each other. Their natural predator, the Faalak, is their only real natural threat on their planet, which are easier to run away from and do not reproduce any faster than the Tho’am. Thus, the Tho’am are very peaceful and will rarely use their strength violently except in means of exercise, self-defense, or hunting for food. The serotonin levels in their brain are much higher than humans, making them even less aggressive on average than a human. When pressed into a fight however, the Tho’am are not to be trifled with. While rarely ever killing without the need to, they will quickly incapacitate their foe with their often greater strength. Fights rarely get bloody, as Tho’am martial arts is specifically tailored to quickly and bloodlessly incapacitate of opponents. The Tho’am are mostly nocturnal predators, most active during the night and occasionally during the twilight periods. They are active for only 10 to 25 percent of the daytime, which is typically used for recreation and scavenging for food. The Tho'am are in many ways similar to the species of lions in the real world; their behaviors being very similar.
Communication: Tho'am language is similar to Galactic Basic in Grammar, which allows it to be easily translated by those that know both. The biggest difference is that there is no equivalent to Galactic Basic use of apostrophes. Other differences are prepositional phrases are used earlier sentences than in Galactic Basic, and the language does not make use of tense. Pluralization is done by adding two letters at the end of the word: the last letter of the singular form followed by "e." Words of the language are also often combined to form a new word. The similar grammar is the distinct reason why Tho'am have an easy time learning how to understand Galactic Basic and vice versa for native Galactic Basic speakers. The written language is much more difficult for non-Tho'am to learn, as is speaking the language with proper tone.
Culture: The Tho'am have adapted very well to the Galaxy's traditions and cultures. Their ideals and traditions are very similar to other races of the Republic but they feature a matriarchy as the women are largely in charge of the government and are stronger than the males usually. They even share a belief in the Force, though it differs from Jedi interpretation. Due to Jedi having the most contact with the race, the Force was incorporated into their belief surrounding the sacred trees. The sacred trees of their home planet are the most resilient plants on the planet, able to grow literally everywhere the Tho'am live, even the arctic. When carved into weapons or armor, they are actually shown to be somewhat resistant to damage, even from lightsabers though it is rare that lightsabers do not clean penetrate from a direct blow. The legendary durability of the tree has led to their worship of the trees as gifts from the gods. The belief of the Force was incorporated as what they believe to be the source of the trees', and by extension the god's, strength if not an outright display of it. They also believe that those that are Force sensitive were born with a gift from the gods. As such, those of the species trained in the ways of the Jedi do not carry lightsabers(especially since there is no naturally occurring lightsaber crystals on the planet), but instead wooden swords(as well as light armor) carved from the trees themselves, being the only ones allowed to do such. These wooden swords are not capable of standing up to a lightsaber without the use of the Force to strengthen them 9/10 times. That is why Tho'am Jedi are trained to utilize the Force to make their weapons durable enough to resist damage from lightsabers and blasters, though they do so by absorbing instead of deflecting or reflecting.
History: The Tho'am are natives of a harsh planet that is very difficult to adapt to. Being one of the species developed to adapt to it, and also the most intelligent, they are the dominant life forms of the planet. The Tho'am first made contact with the Republic thousands of years ago and have been allied with them ever since. The Tho'am are rarely motivated, unless on pilgrimage as Jedi or just are particularly ambitious, to the leave the planet beyond the space stations the Republic visits them from. However, they do contribute to Galactic Society as Tho'ams are quite diverse and intelligent. Famous artists, musicians, and scientists have come from the Tho'am. They are respected for their generally peaceful nature and intelligent minds.
Planet: Working on it...
Technology: The species technology is slightly less advanced than the Galaxy's current technology. Though they have modernistic skills with most forms of technology compared to humans, they specifically pick and choose different things to use as they have different viewpoints in regards to most of it. They do not use blasters or forms of modern transport like spacecrafts in their own society. They do however make use of modern melee weapons barring the lightsaber even among the Jedi of the species as they prefer making weapons that are ceremonially less technologically advanced than the lightsabers. Clothing is another form they do not typically take to the same way. Tho'am specifically wear dull colored robing minus shoes, gloves, and hats in most cases as brighter colors are uncomfortable to their eyes, and gloves and shoes inhibit their natural abilities. Most Tho'am look to be Jedi without lightsabers due to this preference for humble robes. The Jedi on the planet are set apart only by the unique wooden swords they utilize in place of lightsabers and the spare bits of wooden armor they are adorned with by choice. The wooden swords, being made from wood of the sacred trees, are effective weapons in the hands of Jedi. Despite differences in technology used on their own planet, they will often perform similarly to humans in regards to professions and pursuits relative to technology.
Notable PCs: What Player Characters (PCs) belong to this species?
Intent: I wanted to create a species that would be slightly difficult to play comfortably and have many interesting features about them. Though they have a great advantage in combat, I specifically made it so that Tho’am would be almost pacifistic so that no one could just play them as mindless rampant killers reasonably. I also wanted to present a challenge describing their view points and language usage as their language is not easily describable and because their senses are very different from other species. I did not want to create a second race of Wookiees, but I did want to create an entirely nonbeastial race either. It gave me the chance to combine my love of the dragons and their langauge from skyrim, lions, and the Yautja from the Predator series. Also, I am creating this as a part of a larger collection of a planet full of lore I want to contribute to the site, with this species being the sole sentient of the whole bunch.
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